My walks in the Peak District and the surrounding areas, using public transport to get there...also some of my days out; when I still walk quite a bit too.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Retford, Babworth, Ranby, and Worksop

I'm still nursing my injuries from Sunday's walk, a nasty scratch on my inner thigh and a couple of large bruises elsewhere on my body, so I wanted some easy terrain to be walking over today and that's why I chose to go to North Nottinghamshire.

Conditions were certainly easy underfoot, easier than I had expected, or planned for. I got lost making my way out of Retford and instead of walking across the fields to Clumber Park I ended up walking along the road for about half the way to Worksop.

The coverage of my OS map doesn't quite reach all of Retford and so I needed to print off an online map. Unfortunately my printer has run out of coloured toner and so only prints in black and white. Although I'd marked my planned route with red ink it was difficult to spot the river, the canal, or any other footpaths and so when I came across the main road leading out of Retford to the west I just stayed with it.

There was one benefit that accrued due to this change of plan, and direction; the first village I reached after leaving Retford was Babworth with its splendid little church in a delightful peaceful wooded location set well back from the main road. I was even able to go inside for a look round - several old ladies were cleaning the church and they invited me in.

I had hoped to be able to join the Chesterfield Canal at Ranby but couldn't work out how to reach the towpath - I had to continue along the road until I nearly reached Osberton Hall.

The rest of the route was along the canal towpath to Worksop. The Old Pumping House on the outskirts of Worksop wouldn't seem out of place in the central square of an Italian hilltop town.

Yet again, as was the case the last time I was coming back to Doncaster on the bus from Worksop the driver missed my stop. The circumstances were identical; it was the same driver, what I said and what he said was the same, his reactions and the place he did finally drop me off were the same...the same set of traffic lights were also on red...just turning to green as I got off. This goes beyond deja vu, or mere coincidence; there's something wrong with the space-time continuum for me to be experiencing the exact same set of circumstances twice - time's arrow isn't being fired correctly, chronological entropy isn't being applied. Referring to my previous post...maybe I'm getting close with my studies into time travel; or maybe just the bus driver wasn't very good again, or he was discriminating against me. I don't know - maybe I should be freaked out.